My good friend, co-facilitator, and blogger, Melanie Lenahan, shared the playlist from the Alternative Assessment Institute 2022. Yay! I now have 15 sessions + 1 keynote to watch. I started with Nadia Jaramillo‘s presentation entitled “Alternative Assessment in Asynchronous Courses.” Jaramillo is an instructional designer and was an instructor. They provided definitions and examples to offer choice and alternatives. Jaramillo had a slide with an awesome title: “Why I Care About Alternative Assessments” and shared their experience as an English language learner. Jaramillo spoke about the language challenges in assessments. They called it a “dissonance” between what they were teaching and what was assessed. Jaramillo defined “alternative” as 1) offering or expressing a choice and several alternative plans, and 2) different from the usual or conventional. Jaramillo shared the benefits of alternative assessments citing studies for learner agency and autonomy (Pretorius et al. 2017), learning satisfaction (Jopp & Cohen, 2022), increased learning/engagement/creativity (Anderson, 2016; Gehr, 2021), equality of learning opportunity (Waterfield & West, 2006), favors differentiation/reduces assessment anxiety (Garside et al. 2009; O’Neil, 2011; Waterfield & West, 2006). I am glad they shared this valuable list of references and evidence! In the first example, Jaramillo discussed designing an assignment with an instructor to provide choice. The proposal project was an evaluation of a proposal with the opportunity to select how to learn and work with the content of the course. The timeline included submissions week 1-5. They have ten week terms at their institution (Oregon State University). The second example Jaramillo shared was an assignment for future Spanish teachers in the United States. The goal was to focus on the “diverse identities of Latino/a/x/e.” The instructor assigned this auto ethnography that included several drafts. The first draft was based on answering several prompts. Another milestone is a written draft that is discussed with peers. The last draft includes the choice of how to present the final work: video or text.
Jaramillo then discussed why an alternative is “different than usual.” The example was from a psychology of race and racism course. The assignment included an interview through stages: overview, prepare questions, conduct the interview, and apply the data by placing the interviewee’s answer in an identity framework. The last example Jaramillo presented was from a business Spanish class. Students prepare a portfolio. What Jaramillo and colleagues did was include an entrepreneurial module. The assignment now has a company project with team and self-evaluations. The “Shark Tank” style assignment was well-received by students and the instructor. Jaramillo discussed design considerations starting with asking students what their interests are and then make adjustments to the class. Jaramillo also emphasized aligning the types of assignments with the level of the outcomes. Jaramillo explained that we want students engage with the content, not the technology or guidelines for the assignment. For this, they stressed transparency. I thought it was also refreshing to hear about the importance of bringing ideas from the discipline. We have been talking a lot about “professional practice,” and this has bothered me for some reason based on the assumptions we make. However, in this case it makes sense to prepare learners for what they will encounter. This session had several examples of alternative assessments from the perspective of both an instructor and an instructional designer. This blending of the two perspectives helped me realize why alignment and transparency still have a place in alternative assessments. I also love that these assignments can all be done asynchronously!
